Chapter 257: Picking Chili Peppers

Liu Zhuangtou raised an eyebrow. "So what if it is? Seems you’re not entirely clueless."

"Does our Young Master even know who you are? He lent you this house purely out of respect for Mr. Gu."

"Besides, you’re living in someone else’s house and you go and cause this kind of sordid trouble. You should have been thrown out long ago!"

He sneered. "You ruin a young lady’s reputation and then have the gall to cause a scene at her shop. If I had a daughter, I’d never let her marry the likes of you!"

Shanzimama’s eyes widened as she finally understood. She slapped Shanzi on the back. "You... you went to Little Fei’s shop today and caused a scene?"

Shanzi said impatiently, "I didn’t cause a scene! I just exchanged a few words with Xing’er!"

Hearing this, Shanzimama felt her world was collapsing. ’That Gu Fei is so ruthless. Is she someone we can afford to offend?’

And now, look, they were being kicked out immediately!

’But we really can’t stay here anymore anyway. With Xing’er and Shanzi bound to run into each other, who knows what trouble might break out next.’

Shanzimama lowered her head and gave Liu Zhuangtou a slight bow. "Thank you, sir. I’ll start looking for a new place tomorrow. We’ll move out as soon as I find one."

Liu Zhuangtou just snorted and walked away.

Once he was gone, Shanzimama couldn’t stop the tears from falling.

’This son of mine... I can’t control him anymore. This can’t go on. I have to get him a wife, and fast!’

’Once a boy becomes a man, he starts thinking about *that sort of thing*. Things will settle down once he has a wife.’

’But where would she get the silver to find him a wife?’

’After repaying Young Master Su’s ten taels of silver, she’d have almost nothing left.’

’The mule cart can’t be sold. If she sold it, the family would lose its only source of income.’

Shanzimama touched the silver bracelet on her wrist. ’It can’t be helped. This will have to go.’

’Sigh. If I’d known, I would have picked up a girl when we were fleeing the famine. Then I wouldn’t have this problem now.’

To her credit, Shanzimama was resilient. The very next day, she returned the ten taels of silver, gathered their belongings, loaded them onto the mule cart, and the mother and son moved out.

Before long, it was the middle of the fourth month. One morning, Gu Qing came into town to fetch Gu Fei, asking her to come home and see if the chili peppers were ready to be picked.

Gu Fei hadn’t been home in a month or two, so as soon as she arrived, she headed straight for the fields.

She saw the fields filled with chili peppers, some green and some red, hanging down in dense clusters. The sight filled her with joy.

The entire family watched Gu Fei with eager eyes. "Are they ripe? Can we pick them now?"

Gu Fei nodded. "Harvest them. Don’t pick too many of the green ones; starting tomorrow, we’ll deliver some to First-class Pavilion, Drunken Immortal Tower, and my shop every day. As for the red peppers, set some aside to make chopped chilis, and we’ll dry the rest."

Every member of the Gu Family was overjoyed. It had been nearly half a year, and they were finally seeing the fruits of their labor.

Everyone in the family, young and old, went into the fields to pick the peppers. Even Little Cao helped out on the sidelines, rushing to pick up any peppers that fell to the ground and place them in a basket.

Gu Fei called out to her, "Little Cao, don’t touch them! Your hands are too delicate—the spice will make them burn!"

Gu Fei’s family was almost entirely made up of able-bodied workers, and they picked with incredible speed.

By the time the sun began to set, Gu Fei took stock. The seven of them had picked all the peppers across four plots of land.

The harvested peppers were left in baskets in the field. When they were finally weighed, the four plots of land had yielded over four thousand pounds of chili peppers.

It took several trips with the mule cart to haul all the peppers back to the house.

Seeing that Gu Fei’s family had harvested their peppers, her aunt and uncles also rushed over.

The family gazed at the mountain of peppers, none of them feeling hungry despite having missed dinner. Mrs. Chen looked at Gu Fei, her eyes full of hope. "How much will these fresh peppers sell for per pound?"